Though a sparse crowd filtered into the Holmes Student Center’s Diversions Lounge Thursday night, the reading of Sara Keely McGuire’s play “Triple Goddess” evoked an emotional response from the mostly female audience.

“It’s very realistic, like a real conversation,” said Lois Self, a retired NIU faculty member, of the play’s reading.

The play, set in a mountain cabin where three sisters gather in hopes to combat the youngest sister’s heroin addiction, used a characterization of the Triple Goddess of the pagan religions.

“It’s based on the life but it’s also in paganism if you want to call it that … they have a triple goddess and the characters represent the maiden, the mother and the crone,” McGuire said.

The script was scattered with curse words and a consistent blame game between the sisters which conveyed a sense of realism to some audience members.

“The emotional intensity accompanied by occasional profane outbursts powered the detox of the sisters,” said Erica Ferguson, a senior political science major. “Sometimes it [was] a little monotone but the cuss words really jump out at you.”

After the reading, the playwright explained her inspiration and answered audience questions.

“My sister’s heroin addiction and an intervention we had [inspired the play]. It’s very real for me, it’s like I threw up this script,” McGuire said.

McGuire especially pushed the play’s comparison to her life.

“A lot of it is real, but I’m not barren … Anything you head that touched you is real. My philosophy on art is that it must be real … it must be an expression of your soul,” McGuire said.